Marine Le Pen has built her campaign on fear and chaos

What the Arabic press has been saying about the French presidential race and, in particular, the candidacy of Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen has turned the economic crisis to her advantage, according to one regional commentator. Michel Euler / AP

The independent centrist Emmanuel Macron has topped the first round in the race for the French presidency with 23.75 per cent of votes, slightly ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen who got 21.53 per cent. The two candidates will face off in the second round on May 7.

Writing in the London-based pan-Arab daily paper Al Arab, Arabic-language commentator Hamid Zanaz wondered how the qualification of the far-right leader for the second round of the French presidential elections has raised no concern among the French people.

When Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen qualified for the second round in the 2002 French presidential election, the news shook the entire French community, Zanaz noted.

“No one had expected the far-right party to come this far in one of the world's oldest democracies.”

Over a million people staged protests across France on May 1, 2002 to express their opposition to the Front National and its candidate, Mr Le Pen. Even Jacques Chirac refused to hold a televised debate with his rival.

“Fifteen years later, the qualification of Marine Le Pen for the second round of the French presidential election comes as no surprise.

“Perhaps the only surprise was that she did not come first, but only got 22 per cent of the votes," he noted.

What is more, Mr Macron considered the Front National as a party like any other when asked whether it was appropriate to hold a televised debate with Ms Le Pen.

Zanaz said that Ms Le Pen had distanced herself from her father's anti-Semitic and xenophobic views and had been purging those views from her party from the moment she took the reins in 2011.

“Bit by bit, the image of the Front National has changed and it is no longer looked down upon as a haven for angry radicals and racists,” he noted.

According to the writer, Ms Le Pen has also turned the suffocating economic crisis to her advantage.

“She has presented the Front National to millions of unemployed and people at risk of unemployment as a party at the service of a higher cause, namely protecting France from globalisation, the European Union, Muslim invasion and immigrant attacks.”

Zanaz concluded that the party was eventually able to impose its almost normal presence thanks to its revamp and its outstanding election results. However, he wondered whether the Front National has really changed or if it has merely altered the image it wants to convey to voters.

Writing in the London-based pan-Arab daily paper Al Hayat, Lebanese columnist Salim Nassar said that Front National leader Ms Le Pen had undoubtedly benefited from the state of emergency declared following the 2015 Paris massacre that left 130 dead.

“Similarly, she has used to her advantage the Champs-Elysées shooting that killed one police officer and wounded two others two days before the first round in the race for the French presidency,” he added.

According to the writer, the solutions that Ms Le Pen had inherited from her father are the complete opposite of those presented by her rival Mr Macron.

“Ms Le Pen adopts an approach that builds on the fear from political Islam and on the refusal of Muslim integration in the European Community.”

The far-right presidential candidate has modelled her campaign on Donald Trump's “America First” to gain the support of opponents of immigration.

Nassar noted that Ms Le Pen was now attempting to destroy Franco-German cooperation.

“She has reminded public opinion that the French were not responsible for deporting Jews to death camps, in a bid to show that she has shaken off her father's anti-Semitic complex and to get Israel to back her.”

Besides this sudden transformation, Nassar added that the far-right candidate had made a number of alluring promises to gain the support of the army and several financial institutions.

“Marine Le Pen has undertaken to boost the defence budget and to strip citizenship from and deport any French convicted on terrorism charges.

“She has also promised to deport sheikhs and imams who incite immigrants to commit terrorist attacks, and to impose blockades on gang-controlled suburbs,” he said.

Nassar concluded that even though Ms Le Pen did not admit that the loss of the final battle would mean she is out of the Front National, she was acting as if this were her last shot.